Try Again
by NineStoicCrayolas
Summary: Sakura has loved Sasuke for what feels like a thousand years. It's time for Sasuke to try.
1. Chapter 1

I don't own Naruto! Also thank you so much to all that are reading my stories~ I hope you bear with me on my attempts at story-juggling.

Just wanted to say that I wrote this because I thought that the switch from wanting to sever all ties to Sakura to wanting to marry her was a bit too fast and also? Sakura deserves to have some doubts-while I admire her unconditional love for someone, I also think that love has to be tested.

Thank you all so much for taking time out of your days/nights to read this!

xx Ghost Girl

Sakura was tired. Her hands were shaking with the strain of exhaustion and too-much chakra, her eyes were burning in her skull and she just wished she could drop in a comatose state for the next twenty four hours.

Sakura was tired and Sasuke, apparently, did not understand that.

Sasuke stood before her, dressed in his jonin shirt and slacks, staring at her. His thumb twitched and Sakura knew that this conversation must have been killing him.

The fact that _he_ had to approach _her_ was probably inducing nightmares for his twelve-year-old self.

"What do you want Sasuke?" Sakura asked, stifling a yawn. Her arms trembled with the effort and she knew that Tsunade would wring out her ass for overdoing it again.

A vendor happily smiled at her and she wondered if she should pick up some tempura before she went home. Then again, it would be cold and soggy by the time she woke up, so maybe not.

"To talk." Sasuke answered, breaking her out of her thoughts.

Cold black eyes trailed her figure and Sakura refrained from flinching at the strange approval lurking in his eyes. Sasuke had increasingly become more awkward to hang around since they had come back from the war. She could only ever remember his hands sparking in chidori and he could only ever see her professing her undying love for him.

Which, in the end, had died.

Along with many of Sakura's emotions.

"About what?" She breathed out, running a hand through her short locks. God, her hair was so greasy—she should really get to a shower—she probably stunk even worse.

"Things." He answered offhandedly.

Sakura gave him a look. And when he seemed to completely misunderstand it, she sighed and looked up at the dark sky.

The air was damp and Sakura knew it was bound to rain soon.

"That's not good enough, Sasuke." She whispered. Sakura turned away, heading towards her apartment, ignoring the calls of the various salespersons who wanted to sell her tasty, yummy food.

Her stomach gurgled and Sakura groaned. "Stupid body impulses."

She turned a sharp left and headed straight for the dango store. Yes, she knew it was unhealthy, she knew that what her body really needed was good food and vegetables, but she was tired and exhausted and her fingers smelt of chakra-burn.

She deserved a good stick of dango, damnit.

"Sakura."

She froze as she paid for the dango, ignoring the clerk's widening eyes and concerned looks.

He had…followed her?

This was a development in the Sasuke-is-strange-and-aloof-guidebook.

She would have to note it down sometime.

Maybe tell Naruto.

There would be a press release—Sasuke, the man who finally spoke to Sakura for more than ten seconds involving things other than insults, training or food! The crowd is shocked—confused—what is this sudden change of personality? Is it permanent? What in the world is he thinking ladies and gents!

"What is it?" Sakura groaned out, taking a big chomp of dango, "Please don't tell me someone is dying or on the verge of death or mortally injured—I am _exhausted_ and if they need a Tsunade-level doctor there is always Shizune who is available."

The last bit was a lie—Shizune was on her honeymoon with Genma—but nobody had to know that.

A tiny smile curved Sasuke's lips and Sakura promptly choked on her food.

"Are you okay? God, are you running a fever? What is wrong with you—"

His annoyed expression resurfaced and Sakura could finally breathe again.

"Oh good, I thought you had suffered a stroke." She said, biting into another yummy, warm, dango.

His eyes narrowed and the upkick to his mouth vanished completely, settling into his customary scowl.

Ah, there it is folks.

Sasuke Uchiha's natural expression.

Patented and all.

"Well what did you want to talk about?" She asked, moving away from the dango store and towards the winding streets of the civilian district. She would have to check up on Emi-chan tomorrow—her little sister was _much_ too much of an upstart to be left alone for a month—she thought her parents had finally understood that from the last month-long trip.

"Marriage."

Sakura tripped over a cobblestone and slammed her face right into the ground.

Groaning, she moved her world-weary muscles and stood up shakily, a tear escaping her eye at the fact that her dango was smushed on the ground, splattered all over her bloodied scrubs.

She shook her head and then ran a hand over her face. "Why d'you wanna talk about it now, Sasuke? I'm sure the girl you're in love with would want you to talk to about this herself."

Sasuke seemed to hesitate before he ploughed forward. "I'm not in love."

"Oh." Sakura stopped and looked over at the man.

His left eye was twitching and his hands were clenching and unclenching and Sakura wondered why on earth he was asking her about marriage.

"Well…okay then? I don't know what you wanted to talk about marriage with me for, but I'm really tired and my legs feel like jelly so I'm—"

"Marry me."

"—going to—wait what the fuck?"

Sakura stood in front of her childhood crush, her teenage love and her adult—thing, person, whatever.

His eyes held hers and Sakura rubbed her eyes.

"What the fuck?" She whispered again.

Her ears must be deceiving her because Sasuke would _never_ ask her to marry him. Not in a _thousand_ years. Not even if she was the last person on earth who could bear his children and pound into like a sex-depraved maniac.

"Why are you asking me this?" She asked, eyes crinkling with displeasure and confusion.

"Because I have to complete my goals." He answered nonchalantly, looking at the pretty stars stretching above them in the heavens. "We don't need a wedding, we can just sign a slip of paper—"

"No."

Sasuke turned. His hands unclenched and his eyes widened in shock. "What?"

Sakura's eyes gleamed under the moonlight, strong and steady.

"No." Sakura repeated.

He stared at her.

"You won't marry me?" He asked again, eyes narrowing.

"No." She said quietly, eyes turning up towards the sky, "I won't because it wouldn't be fair to me."

"How is that not fair? I'm giving you the one thing you've ever wanted—myself." Sasuke ground out and Sakura actually has to restrain herself from physically harming this…this—

"Dickhead." Sasuke looked properly scandalized and Sakura snarled at him, "Why on _earth_ would I marry you?"

"You said you loved me." Sasuke said, sounding awfully accusing. "You said you would do anything for me."

Sakura sighed and she wondered when her life began acting like a soap opera. "Listen—Sasuke. Marriage is about love. Marriage is about giving yourself to another person not because you want to complete a goal, but because you _love_ them and want to share your life—children, moments, kisses—with them."

"This," Sakura gestured between them with a disgusted face, "Is not even remotely worth keeping. You would leave me—go on a thousand journeys and never be home. I would have to keep loving you because of duty and because of the children we would have and it would disintegrate, so goddamn fast."

Sakura straightened up, swallowing against the lump in her throat—because this hurts more than she would like to admit—even though she has told herself time and time again that she doesn't love him, that she has already put too much on the table for him only for him to crush between his fingers, he will always keep a special place in her heart.

He was her first love.

He would have been her last if he had let her.

"Don't ask me to agree to a dutiful marriage. Don't ask me to look past the fact that you have very little care for me. Hell," She exclaimed, waving her arms around her, "You only ever came back here because _Naruto_ asked you. Because Naruto fought you, because Naruto never gave up. I was _never_ in the equation—you only saw me as a failsafe plan, as a little girl who was so in love you could ask for the stars and she would find a way to give them to you—and that hurts. That hurt and because of that, I will not marry you."

Sasuke is silent and Sakura is tired.

She is standing in front of the man that she has loved for what feels like a thousand years and she is turning down what she has _always_ wanted—a chance.

"I'll see you tomorrow at training." She said before turning and walking away, ignoring the silent ache in her heart and the way her feet lagged against the cobblestones.


	2. Chapter 2

Sakura shoveled eggs into her mouth and wondered why on earth she had managed, for the first time in ten years mind you, to be late. Then she looked over to her absolute _rascal_ of a sister and she sighed. Big green eyes looked back to her and Sakura groaned.

Oh yes. Her sister had decided to throw a tantrum. That was why.

"Emi-chan, listen, you've got to get to daycare." Sakura insisted, already dragging a coat onto her shoulders in the middle of biting through toast. "Mama and Papa paid for it so—"

"I want to go see what being a shinobi is like!" Her little sister cried. Emi sniffled and Sakura's heart clenched as she watched fat tears drip down her sister's cheeks. Watery green eyes locked with hers and she sighed.

Crouching down, she patted Emi's brown hair and the little girl drew closer. "How about next week alright? I know you don't want to go to daycare but it's important because Mama and Papa paid for it and keeping your promises," she ignored Emi's glare, "is essential to being a shinobi."

Glassy green eyes stilled and little Emi's fingers unclenched. "R-Really?"

"Yes. Really." Sakura promised, a small smile slipping onto her face.

They were late to Emi's daycare and Sakura was even later to practice—even starting to run in order to get there somewhat on time. When she burst onto the training field, breathing lightly, she searched for the customary orange or black.

When she didn't find it she frowned. Maybe there had been a mix—

A yelp sounded from another clearing and Sakura smiled.

Naruto barreled into her, eyes dripping with happiness and an electric smile.

"Sakura-chan!" His smile turned into a pout, "Why are you late? Are you beginning to be like Kakashi-sensei? Is this your rebellious phase—"

Sakura snorted and Naruto seemed scandalized.

"How _could_ you just _dismiss me like that!_ " He yelled, a hand coming up to his heart, eyes hurt.

"Baka. I had to do some things…sorry?" She offered, leaning forward to pat his cheek.

"S'okay Sakura-chan." He looked over to Sasuke who was standing at the tree line awkwardly, "The bastard is acting a bit weird today—seems kind of angry, y'know?"

Her eyebrows drew together and she wondered who could've put him in a bad mood. Sasuke was almost never upset unless someone denied him something and she didn't know anyone who—

Oh.

 _Oh._

The marriage proposal thing that she had sidelined.

Was it bad that she had completely put it out of her mind?

Well it wasn't like she could take it seriously could she? He had basically ordered her to marry him. With almost no, concern for her feelings—her feelings as a twelve-year-old infatuated girl yes—but not her feelings _now_.

Her eyes narrowed and Naruto looked at her strangely.

Well he would just have to get over it. She wasn't going to marry someone whose only connection to her was the fact that she was a 'failsafe' plan.

She wasn't going to be in a marriage—scratch that— _relationship_ that ended in disaster. If she ever got married then they would have to adore her just as much as she adored them.

And that's why she knew Sasuke would never work with her.

Even when she was a child and wished to be his perfect wife and child-bearer, she somehow knew that he would probably never look at her more than a contingency plan.

There was no love, no _affection_ in Sasuke's gaze, not since they were six years old and Sakura had stumbled upon him on the street and he offered her a tomato.

"Erm Sakura-chan…you wouldn't know anything about that would you?" Naruto asked. His hand ran through his sweaty hair and Sakura wondered how long he was burning off energy.

She winced. "Um…say he had hypothetically asked me to marry him and I _hypothetically_ said no? Yeah…I might know something about that…"

Naruto promptly choked on his saliva.

"Ew, Naruto, you covered me in slobber." She whined, wiping away copious amounts of spittle from her cheeks. "Please refrain from spitting all over me next time."

"Y-You s-said no to the bastard?" He squeaked out, face turning an alarming shade of eggplant.

"Um, yeah?" She said.

Naruto looked at her for another second before he turned to Sasuke and then back to her. And then again. And then once more.

"What?" Sakura snapped, impatient.

He hesitated. "J-Just. Just. Wow. Like. I don't. How? Why? What?"

Sakura ran a hand through her hair, snagging on her messy ponytail and wondered when Naruto was going to realize that while she had loved Sasuke for a long, long time, she was not going to let him hurt her any longer. She deserved to be loved back.

And Sasuke, as much as he would hate it, would have to respect her wishes.

"Naruto…" Sakura sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, "Can we just forget it?"

Blue eyes watched her for another second and then smiled reassuringly. "Sure Sakura-chan. We'll forget it."

Practice only started properly when Kakashi arrived two hours later than Sakura and flipping through the pages of an Icha Icha book.

"You're _late_ old man!" Naruto bellowed, stopping in the middle of his spar with Sakura.

"I am _fashionably_ late." Kakashi-sensei smiled when Sakura landed a punch, Naruto flying across the clearing and collapsing in a pile of sweaty limbs and curses.

"Hn." Sasuke muttered, bending his knees as he ran through his kata.

"Kaka-sensei!" Sakura grinned and pulled him into a sweaty hug. "I thought you weren't going to be home for another week!"

Kakashi smiled down at her and ruffled her hair. She preened and hugged him tighter.

"S-Sakura— _youch!_ " He yelped.

He stilled when Sakura let him go.

"What was that Kakashi?" Green eyes narrowed dangerously.

Naruto smirked across the clearing and then winced from the huge bruise that was forming on his cheek.

Kakashi smiled cautiously and leaned backwards. "Oh you know, Sakura-chan…it's nothing?"

Her eyes narrowed further and Kakashi began to sweat. "Are you asking me or telling me, Kakashi?"

"Telling." He gulped. "Definitely telling."

Sakura began to relax and Sasuke snorted as Kakashi did too.

"Oh so if I do this." A finger poked at Kakashi's right side and the older shinobi yelped louder, "Then it doesn't hurt at all?"

"Nope!" Kakashi squeaked, cursing the day Sakura became a medic-nin. Couldn't he just suffer in peace?

"You're so full of shit Kakashi-sensei. Sit down; I'm going to be healing your ribs okay?" Sakura tutted making Kakashi sigh.

"Maa, maa, Sakura-chan are you—"

" _Now."_

Kakashi sat down.

* * *

"So you asked Sakura-chan to marry you?" Naruto asked as soon as Sakura started healing their sensei.

Sasuke stumbled and Naruto took the opportunity to land a hit on his side.

Kakashi lifted his head and his eyes narrowed dangerously. Sasuke cursed furiously, knowing that he would be expecting a talk from his sensei soon enough.

Luckily, Sakura seemed immersed in her healing. He would not have to suffer humiliation _again_.

"She told you?" He hissed out.

Naruto rolled his eyes and ducked to avoid the swipe of Sasuke's katana. "For the love of Kami Sasuke-teme, she's my _best friend._ Of course she told me!"

Sasuke tried not to be too butt-hurt about that.

"Why did you ask her?" Naruto pressed, throwing windmill shuriken at Sasuke's head. There was an extra twist in the throw and Sasuke snarled as Naruto purposely nicked a lock of his hair.

"None of your business." He growled.

"Wrong~!" Naruto sang, flipping to slide a kunai closer to Sasuke's neck. "She's _Sakura-chan._ Her happiness is what keeps this team going."

Sasuke frowned. "I thought it was you who kept it going."

"Wow." Naruto said, eyes widening in realization, "Now I'm realizing why she said no."

Sasuke grunted and lunged for him. "She told you about that too?"

"Again," Naruto pushed back, "I am her _best friend._ "

"Hn."

"Sasuke why did you ask her?" Naruto pressed again.

"Hn."

"I can't help you if you say nothing." Naruto goaded.

Sasuke grunted and then stopped swinging his katana viciously. He slumped against a nearby tree and wiped a hand to get rid of the sweat on his brow.

Naruto stood, breathing heavily, in front of him, an eyebrow raised.

Sasuke groaned and clenched his fists.

"I asked her because I have to complete my goals."

His best friend gaped. And then collapsed to the ground laughing. Kunai scattered across the training ground floor and a shuriken embedded itself into the earth next to the dobe's head.

Sasuke scowled and ignored Kakashi's vicious glare.

The older shinobi really needed to mind his own business.

"Y-you actually," Naruto gasped out, tears leaking from closed blue eyes, " _Told her that?"_

Sasuke's ears reddened and then scowled again. "Hn."

"I can't believe it." Naruto wheezed through fits of laughter.

Sasuke's hands clenched the earth and he willed himself to be calm. Patient. He was a picture of collected tolerance.

"I literally cannot believe you." Naruto said, beginning to glare, finally sobering up. "Do you even know how much that must have hurt?"

Sasuke had an idea but he was not going to admit it. "Hn."

"You're a real bastard sometimes Sasuke. A real bastard." Naruto glared harder and Sasuke began to feel more uncomfortable. He had never had Naruto upset at him before. Desperate, yes. Angry, yes. Betrayed, yes.

But not upset.

Naruto shook his head and stood up. "Well I would normally say good luck but Sakura-chan…deserves to be married because she loves someone and that person loves her back."

"I—"Sasuke started.

"No, you wouldn't." Naruto interrupted eyes serious, "Maybe you would begin to care for her later on. Maybe you would kiss her every now and then and learn how to show your affection for her. Maybe you would even love her back. But right now, what you're asking, has nothing to do with your _feelings._ That's why she said no."

Naruto sighed and looked up at the cloudy sky. "I know you like her more than other girls, teme. But you _don't_ have affection for her. You don't have anything other than dutiful care and she doesn't want that."

"She's the same as she was. I would begin to love her eventually." Sasuke grunted, his fingers sliding through upturned dirt. "She should be happy with that."

 _With me._ Is what he wants to say but it sounds ridiculous and so his lips stay shut.

Naruto looked at him, incredulous. "You don't even _know_ her Sasuke. She loved you for a long time and you didn't bother to know anything about her, even when we were genin."

"I know no one else has asked to marry her." Sasuke spit out.

He winced, immediately, when he realized how cruel that was.

Naruto glared at him. "Tenten asked."

Sasuke choked. "What?"

"They had a thing during the war. Tenten had lost Neji and Sakura was there for her. It continued for about six months after until Tenten asked to marry her and Sakura said no. She said she wasn't cut out for marriage." Naruto took a deep breath and looked over quickly to Sakura who was still checking up on Kakashi, smiling jovially, "Tenten cried for _days_ , Sasuke. And Sakura didn't show up for training for about a month."

Sasuke frowned. "I thought she was on a mission."

Naruto stared. And stared. And stared.

"Think about what you just said." Naruto told him.

His best friend walked away and Sasuke frowned, troubled.


End file.
